Lenten Meditation: March 16, 2025
The Second Sunday in Lent
Daily Scripture Passage: Genesis 15:1-12
Sometimes our scripture translations put a finger on the scale, resolving what our biblical texts leave somewhat ambiguous.
“And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness,” says the NRSV* of this stunning encounter between Abram and God. But the Hebrew in our source texts is a bit more muddied – “And he believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” All of a sudden, who thinks what about whom is a bit less clear.
No less a theologian than St. Paul approved of the first interpretation, the one you’ll hear read aloud in church this week – that God credited Abram for his belief in God’s promises, and therefore considered Abram to be righteous.
But there’s just as much cause in the text for us to read it another way–that it is Abram who credits God, Abram who has called God to account, and is now building his understanding of God as righteous. Consider how this passage begins. God appears to Abram with good news, and Abram essentially replies, “I don’t believe you. Look at my life–what could be so good about it?” And in turn, God’s promises begin to change Abram’s mind–perhaps God does care about him after all.
While we might consider it improbable, even scandalous, that God has to prove his goodness and love to us, hear the words of Jesus this week, as Christ imagines himself as a mother hen whose chicks reject her loving presence.
A thing to ponder, this Lenten season–is it hard to believe that God loves you as much as church and scripture claim God does? How are you still coming to trust and believe in God’s promises?
*The New Revised Standard Translation of the Bible, or NRSV, is used in most Episcopal churches.